NextGear Capital UK surpasses £500 million funding

This month marks two years since the launch of the innovative Stocking Plan provider NextGear Capital – and the figures highlighting success to date, demonstrate the impact the multi-award-winning company has made on the automotive industry.

Dealers who have signed up to the Stocking Plan during this time have utilised their additional funds to purchase over 75,000 vehicles worth a cumulative £528million*. However, with over 860 dealers currently signed up on a combined credit limit of over £120million and a live portfolio of over 9,000 vehicles, these figures continue to rise daily.

NextGear Capital has provided its car and LCV dealers with opportunities for growth, expansion and diversification with its ethos of Stock More, Sell More and Make More Profit. Early adopters, Strongford Garage, were the first dealership to sign-up to the Stocking Plan two years ago and have seen a significant impact on their business during that period.

Dale Hodgkinson, Strongford Garage, said: “Having a NextGear Capital Stocking Plan has enhanced our business, enabling us to buy better quality stock, diversify and experiment with LCVs, as well as compete with the bigger buyers at auction. The training and support from our Account Manager and the office staff have helped us to learn about best practices in using the plan and has contributed to the growth of our business.”

Taking success stories, insights and learnings from their current dealer base, coupled with an expanding partner auction and wholesale network has driven innovation which in turn has brought further dealer benefits. Expanding into Ireland in September 2015, the establishment of a dedicated field sales team across both UK & Ireland has helped to accelerate growth.

Pam Halliday, Sales and Marketing Director, said: “Our field sales team are the best in the industry and receive regular training to achieve our internal academy status. We are experts in stock funding and we understand our dealers.”

Further evolutions have been introduced in-line with changing dealer needs and increased opportunities for technology to make dealer stocking simplified. The addition of the StockMaster app last year revolutionised the way UK dealers** work, giving them 24/7, on-the-go access to view and fund pending vehicles won across the majority of UK auctions. The result is less paperwork, increased accessibility and more available time to spend on their forecourts.

The more recent introduction of tiered pricing has also proved popular with the UK used dealer network, offering a flexible solution tailored to their stock profile. In its first 3 months, this more flexible approach has seen a significant increase in the number of vehicles being funded.

In addition, the implementation of Docusign, a paperless addition to the online application process, has helped reduce the sign-up time from 31 days to just 5, meaning dealers can access funds much faster. Rosemary MacDonald, Customer Services Manager, commented: “As members of the Institute of Customer Services we are continually looking for ways to improve our service offering.”

Speaking of the company’s milestone, Managing Director David Mercer said: “It’s been a busy and interesting first two years for us and, while we’ve seen significant success and growth through our initial offering, we’ve also learned a lot from our dealer base about how we can further evolve our Stocking Plans to support them where they need it the most.

“It’s only when you sit back and look at the first two years’ figures that you realise how much we’ve achieved in a relatively short space of time. Our aim is to support dealers in stocking more and selling more and the figures show that we are achieving what we set out to do. I’d like to thank the team for all of their hard work as well as the dealers who trusted us when our product was new to the market.”

* as of Friday 6 May 2016

**StockMaster is not currently available in Ireland